How will mapping a new domain name affect search engine ratings?
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I have an established wordpress.com. This summer I purchased my own domain name and tried a self-hosted WP blog, but I miss the traffic of my old, well-established blog. So I’m going back to the free blog. I understand that if I map my domain name to my wordpress.com site, will I not lose the links to the old posts; they’ll be rerouted to new URLs. My question is, how will this affect my search engine ratings? Would it make any difference if I kept my free domain name as the primary and just used the new domain to rout new traffic to it (even though it wouldn’t look as professional)?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Do the mapping – just forwarding your custom domain name will hurt the search results
you will take a hit for a while as search engines figure out that the two names go together – but in the long run mapping works better than just a forward (or forward and mask)
your-site.wordpress.com will search a bit better than your-site.com since your-site.wordpress.com looks like a much bigger and more established site
And yes the mapping will look more professional and much better on your business cards and when you tell people about your site – and less confusion if you do a forward and people end up on a strange site
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Do it, the sooner the better. I was the first person on WP.com to have a custom domain and when I saw the temporary downtrend I screamed to the heavens, but it lasted perhaps four months. A custom domain is now something I ALWAYS recommend, even for personal sites.
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